#NNPA BlackPress

COMMENTARY: Bill Cosby Handed Bum Deal from Superior Court

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The primary reason that Cosby and his team cited to justify the appeal is that Judge Steven T. O’Neill allowed the testimony of prior bad acts – five other women who were not connected to this case but who claimed they were also drugged and assaulted by Cosby.

Published

6 years ago

January 3, 2020

Stacy M. Brown

Cosby maintains that he had never given women Quaaludes without their knowledge or consent. He said he obtained them because, in the 1970s, "it was the in thing." Both women and men wanted them, similar to the ecstasy craze of the 1980s and 1990s.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

On December 10, the Pennsylvania Superior Court unanimously rejected Bill Cosby’s appeal.

The primary reason that Cosby and his team cited to justify the appeal is that Judge Steven T. O’Neill allowed the testimony of prior bad acts – five women who were not connected to this case Cosby was tried for but who claimed that they were also drugged and assaulted by Cosby.

According to several attorneys and legal experts interviewed by NNPA Newswire, that ruling and many of the other decisions made by O’Neill over the course of the trial, were questionable.

“With respect to prior bad acts evidence, such as these other accusers, trial courts often let this type of evidence in where the Commonwealth can show that the allegations were similar or somewhat similar to the allegations in the current case, and the appellate courts usually approve of this,” stated Zak Goldstein, a Philadelphia-based criminal appeals attorney with the firm, Goldstein Mehta LLC.

“It then becomes incredibly difficult to obtain a fair trial as this type of propensity evidence is overwhelmingly prejudicial,” Goldstein added.

For those that may be unaware, Cosby faced two trials.

The first trial resulted in a hung jury where 10 of the 12 jurors voted to acquit Cosby.

The second trial resulted in Cosby’s conviction and a three-to-10-year prison sentence.

The NNPA Newswire covered both trials and their aftermath.

Both trials hinged upon Cosby’s interaction with Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athlete and employee.

Cosby acknowledged giving Constand one-and-a-half tablets of Benadryl, which is less than the normally dispensed dosage.

Benadryl is an antihistamine used to relieve symptoms of allergy, hay fever, and the common cold. It is considered one of the oldest and most frequently used over-the-counter medications for children, and normally dispensed in 25 MG tablets at a dosage of one to two tablets every four-to-six hours.

Contrary to popular belief, Quaaludes were never administered to Constand.

Both Cosby and Constand agree that Constand was never coerced to accept the Benadryl tablets. She accepted them and consumed them of her own free will.

During Cosby’s initial trial, in 2017, Constand and Kelly Johnson, who worked for Cosby’s agent, the William Morris Agency, were allowed to testify.

Both women alleged that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them.

Johnson initially testified said the incident happened in the late 1980s. However, during her testimony she changed the date of the incident at least three times, citing a different year each time.

While O’Neill allowed prosecutors to call Johnson, whose case was arguably unrelated to Constand, to testify, he refused to allow Cosby’s lawyers to call Marguerite Jackson, a Temple University employee, who in a sworn affidavit, said Constand told her about Constand’s scheme to “get Cosby.”

Because of O’Neill’s refusal to allow testimony from Jackson, the defense did not call a single witness during the 2017 trial, which ended in a hung jury.

“It is not surprising to me that the first trial, where only one ‘prior bad act’ was allowed into evidence, resulted in a hung jury while the second trial, where more accusers were allowed to testify, resulted in a conviction,” Goldstein stated.

In the second trial in 2018, O’Neill shockingly reversed his decision from allowing one woman to testify against Cosby, to letting prosecutors call five other women who had decades-old, uncharged, and unproven claims against the actor.

One of the women, Janice Baker-Kinney, testified that she had taken a Quaalude BEFORE visiting Cosby. Later, she said she accepted another pill from Cosby while at his home in Tahoe, Nevada.

When asked on the witness stand why she took a Quaalude, Baker-Kinney gave perhaps the most damning response: “To get in the mood,” she stated.

Another woman, Chelan Lasha, gave her testimony while being coached from the audience by her attorney.

The Black Press observed attorney Gloria Allred appearing to motion for her client to cry while on the witness stand. Lasha sobbed throughout the entire, almost unintelligible testimony.

O’Neill refused to allow Cosby’s attorneys to question Lasha, or inform the jury, about her reported history of perjury and prostitution.

Another woman, former supermodel Janice Dickinson, testified that Cosby assaulted her in the 1980s.

Dickinson claimed that she was on a modeling shoot on an exotic island with her boyfriend when Cosby called her from Nevada.

She immediately left the boyfriend and flew to Nevada, where she had dinner with Cosby and a friend.

Dickinson said she went to Cosby’s room, and he drugged and assaulted her.

In her memoirs, however, Dickinson wrote an entirely different story.

She said, “Cosby was such a gentleman,” and noted that she had gotten high on her own. A photo displayed in court regarding the night in question was curious.

It showed Cosby in a robe and talking on the telephone, while Dickinson lies on a bed appearing alert and a willing participant in whatever was to take place.

The second trial also was a lesson on how not to select a jury.

When selected, Juror #11, quipped that Cosby was already guilty. However, O’Neill refused defense attorneys request to remove him.

Also, despite other jurors admitting to “personal relationships” with case detectives and prosecutors, O’Neill also refused defense motions to remove them.

One juror even admitted to being neighbors and friends with O’Neill’s court reporter, but the judge declined to remove that individual.

The judge also refused to rule on whether the statute of limitations had expired.

In Pennsylvania, the statute of limitations on sexual assault is 12 years. For prosecutors to have brought a case against Cosby that dated back to 2004, it must have been done by December 31, 2016.

A day earlier, on December 30, 2016, prosecutors did charge Cosby.

Lead defense attorney Tom Mesereau laid out travel and telephone records that should have proved that the case against Cosby was filed after the statute of limitations had run.

O’Neill declined to rule on the statute of limitations, and decided to allow jurors to determine if they had indeed expired. Based on statements released by the jury, they never considered the law about the statute of limitations.

Prosecutors pinpointed the date of the Constand/Cosby incident to the second or third week in January 2004. However, evidence showed that Cosby wasn’t in Pennsylvania at all in January 2004.

The documents also showed Cosby wasn’t in the state in December 2003.

Perhaps the most credible witness called by either side was Cosby’s former personal chef, John-Conrad Ste. Marthe.

Earlier, Constand testified that the Ste. Marthe was at the house the night of the incident and left after preparing a meal, and he was still in Cosby’s employ.

Ste. Marthe remembered Constand but testified that he left his position in May of 2003 – a 2009 New York Times feature on the chef noted that he did leave Cosby’s employ in 2003.

O’Neill also limited testimony of a key defense witness who had sworn in a deposition that Constand and her mother were seeking money from Cosby.

Robert Russell, a former friend of Constand, said Constand was hooked on mushrooms and marijuana, and she came to America to try and become a millionaire.

Russell said he, Constand, and her mother, Gianna, were close friends in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“The prosecution is trying to say that [Constand] is some innocent babe in the woods,” Mesereau said at the time. “They’ve painted the idea that’s she’s naïve, pure and holistic, and that she was naïve in accepting pills from Bill Cosby.”

Russell, who said Constand’s mother, Gianna, “hated blacks and gays,” said Constand wasn’t “this holistic person” she portrayed herself to be and that she had a plan to get $1 million from Cosby, who eventually paid Constand nearly $4 million to settle a civil claim she’d brought against him after prosecutors initially declined to prosecute Cosby.

That civil case involved Cosby providing a deposition that included his response to Constand’s lawyers questioning whether he had provided Quaaludes to women he dated decades earlier.

In the deposition, Cosby maintained that he had never given women Quaaludes without their knowledge or consent. He said he obtained them because, in the 1970s, “it was the in thing.” Both women and men wanted them, similar to the ecstasy craze of the 1980s and 1990s.

When asked if he gave them to women whom he wanted to have sex with, Cosby said he did.

While his statements to police and in his deposition remained consistent, Constand’s statements changed several times. So much so, that former District Attorney, Bruce Castor, advised her to seek civil remedies because he said: “she’s not credible.”

O’Neill refused to allow Castor to testify on behalf of the defense, in part, because of a longstanding feud between the judge and Castor.

Reportedly, O’Neill blamed Castor for outing an affair O’Neill had with a then-assistant district attorney in Castor’s office.

During the Cosby trial, O’Neill refused to recuse himself, and inexplicably gave an emotional and arguably inappropriate dissertation from the bench on how much he loves his wife and how she’s independent.

As jurors deliberated Cosby’s fate, O’Neill was seen and heard outside of the juror room, whistling the song from the hit movie, “Kill Bill.”

Shortly afterward, the jury reached its verdict to convict Cosby.

Stacy M. Brown

Posts by Stacy M. Brown

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OP-ED: The Dream Cannot be Realized Without Financial Freedom

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Dr. King spent the final chapter of his life pushing the country to face economic injustice. The day before he was tragically assassinated, Dr. King stood with sanitation workers in Memphis to call for economic equality. He helped launch the Poor People’s Campaign because he knew freedom hollowed out by poverty is not freedom at all. Dr. King kept pushing America to match its promises with practical pathways.

Published

5 days ago

January 19, 2026

admin

By Ben Crump

We honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. each January with speeches, service projects, and by reciting powerful quotes we know by heart.

But too many Black families will spend much of MLK Day the same way they spend most Mondays.

With the gas tank hovering near empty, hoping the car can go until the next paycheck arrives. With a prescription waiting at the pharmacy counter because they cannot afford the cost.

With a paycheck that has to stretch further than what seems possible.

Dr. King understood that true dignity means being able to afford and build a good life. In one of his clearest reminders, he asked what it means to “eat at an integrated lunch counter” if you cannot “buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee.”

That question still carries weight for many. Personal freedom will not be achieved without financial freedom.

Dr. King spent the final chapter of his life pushing the country to face economic injustice. The day before he was tragically assassinated, Dr. King stood with sanitation workers in Memphis to call for economic equality. He helped launch the Poor People’s Campaign because he knew freedom hollowed out by poverty is not freedom at all. Dr. King kept pushing America to match its promises with practical pathways.

That is the part of his legacy we should sit with this MLK Day.

This work has never been more important or needed. The cost of groceries, rent, and childcare have become an increased burden. And many families go from stable to scrambling with just one unexpected expense.

These realities are on display in a recent national survey commissioned by DreamFi, echoing what so many families already feel so deeply. More than one in four respondents told us they used check-cashing services in the past year. This finding makes it clear that too many households still need simpler and more accessible options for moving money.

The survey also shows how unexpected expenses impact families. Only 41% of Black respondents said they could cover a $1,000 emergency, compared with 56% of white respondents. When a tire blows out, when a child gets sick, when hours get cut, the question is not theoretical. The question is immediate and the impact is real.

We must shine a light on this struggle and work to equip families with tools to build better futures. We must recognize Dr. King’s wisdom and acknowledge that financial stability is a civil rights issue, because financial instability limits the ability to have choices.

The survey also found hope that can guide how we move forward.

Black families are not turning away from the idea of building stability. In fact, they are reaching for it. In the survey, 79% of Black respondents said they sought out financial education in the past six months. Ours is a community hungry for tools and a fair shot at creating a better tomorrow.

So, what does it mean to honor Dr. King right now?

It means we get practical.

It means we expand access to clear, trustworthy financial education that respects people’s time and speaks to real solutions. It means we support savings pathways that help families prepare for emergencies before emergencies arrive. It means we encourage options that make routine transactions easier and less costly, so a family is not paying extra simply to manage their own money.

Most of all, it means we stop treating financial instability as normal. Because normal is not the same as acceptable.

Dr. King asked America to make its promises real. The best way to honor him now is to provide opportunities for everyone to achieve Dr. King’s dream.

Ben Crump is a nationally renowned civil rights attorney and founder of Ben Crump Law. Known as “Black America’s attorney general,” he has represented families in some of the most high-profile civil rights cases of our time, including those of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tyre Nichols, and Ahmaud Arbery. He is also co-founder of DreamFi, a financial empowerment platform focused on helping everyday people build stability through practical resources.

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Four Stolen Futures: Will H-E-B Do The Right Thing?

BLACKPRESSUSA – An 18-wheeler carrying H-E-B merchandise struck a disabled car on US 87 near Dalhart, resulting in the deaths of four young Texas women. Dashcam footage shows their hazard lights flashing before impact. As H-E-B points to subsidiary distance, families wait for accountability.

Published

6 days ago

January 18, 2026

Oakland Post

By TotallyRandie
Social Media Correspondent, BlackPressUSA

Eighty thousand pounds of steel doesn’t just collide—it obliterates. While corporate lawyers hide behind the sterile jargon of liability and subsidiaries, four Houston families are left haunted by viral footage of a tragedy that should never have happened. On November 5, 2025, a stretch of US 87 became a crime scene of corporate negligence, claiming four vibrant Texan futures in a heartbeat.

The dashcam footage is a nightmare in real-time. A black Nissan Altima, hazards blinking in a desperate plea for space, crawls along the right lane near Dalhart. The four young women inside did exactly what we are taught to do during an emergency: slowed down and put on hazards. They were then met by an 18-wheeler hauling H-E-B merchandise. The truck plowed into them at full speed—no brakes, no swerve, no mercy.

The lives of Breanna Brantley, Taylor White, Myunique Johnson, and Lakeisha Brown were not just lost; they were stolen. To understand the gravity of this loss, you have to realize these women were just starting their lives.

Breanna Brantley (30): A woman entering the prime of her life, a new chapter of wisdom and growth.
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Taylor White (27): A wanderlust traveler and the “glue” for her younger siblings; she was their primary mother figure.
Myunique Johnson (20): Affectionately known as Mimi. Her life was just starting to bloom
Lakeisha Brown (19): A basketball standout set for Blinn College this spring—the beacon of hope meant to rewrite her family’s financial history.

In Texas, political math often attempts to cap the value of a human life, but the $250,000 ceiling suggested by current tort reform is an insult to these families. Breanna, Taylor, Myunique, and Lakeisha were more than just Black women; they were daughters, sisters, and athletes whose lives were abruptly taken away. They deserved milestones—graduations, weddings, and the simple right to grow old—not to be reduced to an apology for a “tragic loss.”

While the dashcam footage suggests an open-and-shut case, Attorney Rodney Jones of Rodney Jones Law Group P.C. revealed in our exclusive interview that reality is far more tangled. The road to justice could be a long, drawn-out process depending on how HEB decides to handle the case.

“This is a senseless accident that could have easily been prevented,” Jones says. “They had the right to possess that lane, and that truck driver had the responsibility to pay attention”. H-E-B is a Texas institution, but its response has triggered deep public outcry. While issuing an apology, the company quickly distanced itself, claiming the carrier wasn’t a “direct” H-E-B truck—despite hauling H-E-B products and being operated by Parkway, a known H-E-B subsidiary.

The driver, Guadalupe Villarreal, reportedly has a history of speeding and prior rear-end accidents. Jones is firm: “I’m looking strictly at his ability to be behind that 18-wheeler. This is a simple matter of a grossly negligent driver and the companies that put him on the road being held accountable.”

“H-E-B can’t bring them back, but they can make sure this never happens again,” Jones argues. “There is no price for a life, but there must be a price for negligence. It’s time for H-E-B to stop pointing fingers and start vetting their drivers properly to protect the public.”

While the public demands criminal charges, Jones notes that the legal wheel turns slowly. However, in the civil arena, H-E-B’s silence is deafening; the company has yet to contact the families directly.

“We desire a speedy resolution so we don’t have to drag this out,” Jones concluded. “H-E-B is a beloved chain here in Texas. Hopefully, they come to the table to resolve this fast. I feel like the longer they make these families wait for closure, the more it should cost.”

The ball is in H-E-B’s court. Will they live up to the Texas-strong values they advertise, or will they let a legal loophole define their legacy?

Bell @TotallyRandie
Multimedia Correspondent & Digital Creator
BlackPressUsa.Com/TotallyRandie.com /Stylemagazine.com

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Travis Scott Teaches Us How to Give Forward

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE It’s not just about the gift under the tree in December; it’s about the skills, the confidence, and the opportunities provided in the months leading up to it.

Published

1 week ago

January 16, 2026

Oakland Post

By TotallyRandie

The fourth quarter of the year is often dubbed “giving season,” and for good reason. As October fades into November, the cultural zeitgeist shifts toward gratitude and the spirit of the holidays. For most, this means making a yearly donation to a local food bank or participating in a toy drive for the less fortunate. But for Houston’s own Travis Scott, “giving season” isn’t a seasonal trend—it’s a sophisticated, year-round blueprint for community empowerment.

Since launching the Cactus Jack Foundation in November 2020 alongside his sister, Jordan Webster, Scott has moved beyond the traditional celebrity check-writing model. While the world watches his every move on global stages, his foundation has been quietly and consistently pouring into the soil that raised him. Whether it’s supporting SWAC baseball athletes or funding the Waymon Webster Scholarship Fund for HBCU students, the mission is clear: provide the resources for the next generation to not just survive, but to lead.

From the Streets to the Stars

This past fall, the foundation took its most ambitious leap yet. In October 2025, Cactus Jack partnered with Space Center Houston—the official visitor center of NASA Johnson Space Center—to launch a first-of-its-kind STEM incubator.

The program was specifically designed for students within the Houston Independent School District (HISD), many of whom come from underserved communities where a career in aerospace often feels like a light-year away. For eight weeks, these middle schoolers weren’t just reading about science; they were living it.

Through a mix of virtual workshops and hands-on sessions at the Cact.Us Design Center and TXRX Labs, students were paired with actual NASA engineers. They weren’t tasked with busywork; they were challenged to solve real-world problems of space habitation, including:

Lunar Water Filtration: Designing systems to purify water on the moon.
Space Habitats: Creating structures designed for food preservation in extreme environments.
Robotics: Developing rovers capable of navigating uneven lunar terrain.

The Power of Being Present

The program culminated in a private showcase at Space Center Houston this past December. Standing alongside retired NASA astronaut and Chief Science Officer Megan McArthur, Scott watched as HISD students presented high-fidelity prototypes. In that room, the disparity usually associated with these neighborhoods vanished, replaced by the technical language of CAD modeling and systems thinking.

But the work didn’t stop at the laboratory. The 6th Annual “Winter Wonderland Toy Drive” at Texas Southern University took place the very next day, showcasing the foundation’s dual-threat approach to philanthropy. While the STEM program looked toward the future, the toy drive took care of the present, putting smiles on the faces of thousands of Houston families with toys, groceries, and essential goods.

“Opportunities like this are being offered to help enrich our students’ lives and inspire them to pursue careers in fields where they can not only thrive but also bring back solutions to their communities.” — Travis Scott

More Than a Headline

Critics and social media skeptics often tweet that “Travis Scott is everywhere but Houston.” The data and the faces of the students at Space Center Houston suggest otherwise. While his music may be a global export, his legacy is being built brick by brick (and circuit by circuit) in HISD classrooms.

By bridging the gap between hip-hop culture and NASA’s high-tech corridors, the Cactus Jack Foundation is teaching us a vital lesson in giving forward. It’s not just about the gift under the tree in December; it’s about the skills, the confidence, and the “out of this world” opportunities provided in the months leading up to it.

Travis Scott may be a global icon, but in Houston, he’s becoming something much more important: a catalyst for the next generation of innovators.